Booker and Lonegan romped to victory tonight after brief campaigns in which they virtually ignored their opponents. The rare August election took place on a rainy day, during which a small fraction of those eligible turned up to cast their votes.

“There are those and others who deride the vision that brought us all here together. They dismiss the idea that we can come together,” Booker told supporters outside the Prudential Center in Newark. “They said that I — they say that we — are being naïve. To them I say, have you ever met us? … This is Newark, New Jersey, and we don’t do naïve.”

The results set up a battle between the celebrity Newark mayor and the strong-willed former Bogota mayor — whose outsized personalities inspired documentary movies about them — in a special Oct. 16 general election to succeed the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

VIDEO: Steve Lonegan wins republican senate primary, speaks to supportersSurrounded by family, friends and supporters, Steve Lonegan celebrates a win in the Republican Senate primary Tuesday night during a gathering at La Quinta Inn & Suites in Secaucus. He will face Newark mayor Cory Booker in the Oct. 16 general election for the seat formerly held by democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died June 3, 2013. Video by Mike Roy/The Star-Ledger

“We’re not going to parse our words. We’re not going to capitulate to pollsters and pundits and to an elite corps of talking heads in the media,” Lonegan told supporters in Secaucus. “We know what we believe, and when we go to Washington, D.C., we are going to do what we say.”

Both men won easy victories. U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt performed well in their home counties, but Booker rang up huge margins of victory in Democrat-rich counties such as Hudson, Essex and Camden. He had nearly 60 percent of the vote with 96 percent counted. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver finished a distant fourth.

In the GOP race, Lonegan’s win over physician Alieta Eck was even more lopsided.
But while polls predicted such an outcome, Booker’s three opponents did not let their long odds dissuade them from running aggressive campaigns.

They hit the mayor for his frequent travels outside of Newark, knocked him over his ties to Wall Street moguls and celebrities, and raised questions about his business dealings with an internet startup he helped found called Waywire. They also criticized him for not being liberal enough, which Holt summarized with three words in a campaign commercial: “He’s no progressive.”

The attacks had little effect, and polls showed Booker was the only candidate known by more than half of the registered voters. Uncowed, Booker paid little attention to the criticism and said his celebrity friends helped raise millions for Newark. He also raised $8.6 million — more than twice as much as any other contender.

Oliver strongly hinted she plans to try again when the winner of the general election is up for a full term next year. “This is part one,” she said as she wrapped up a speech at her campaign headquarters in Newark. “Let us call this, ‘the warm-up,’ ” We’ll be back hitting the ground running, because we’ve got a lot of work to do in 2014.”

“I will not let the tea party Republicans get their way,” and repeal the Affordable Care Act, he said.

Frank Pallone: The brightest days for New Jersey and America are still to comeU.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) tells supporters he will continue the legacy of his friend, the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, during his concession speech in Pallone's hometown of Long Branch after he lost the Democratic U.S. Senate primary race to Newark Mayor Cory Booker. (Star-Ledger video by Andrew Mills)

At his party in Princeton, Holt criticized pollsters who called his campaign a “waste of time,” saying it was worth it to advocate for fairness in Social Security, to rely on science and push for reforms on Wall Street. He also took aim at Gov. Chris Christie for calling for such a quick election timetable, saying “he made the decision even before Sen. Lautenberg was laid to rest.”

Eck, a political novice who keyed in on Obamacare, wished Lonegan “the best of luck” in the general election and said “while we sometimes disagreed over the issues, I believe the battle of ideas is a healthy thing for a political party.” Lonegan said he wanted to make Eck one of his health care advisers.

Voter turnout was on track to be one of the lowest in state history for a U.S. Senate primary contest. The record was set in 2006, when only 8.4 percent of eligible voters turned out. While Democratic turnout was actually higher than most non-presidential election years, the Republican turnout was the lowest ever for a Senate primary.

In Monmouth County, where Pallone lives, county clerk M. Claire French said it was the slowest day in her 17 years on the job, and the first time there’s been an election in the middle of August. “I had to remind myself last night, oh, vote in the morning,” she said. “And I’m in the business.”

At French Towers, a public senior housing complex in Trenton, turnout was trickling in at about 6 people per hour as of 5:30 p.m. “With the August primary and rain, turnout has been slow,” said Gayle Harris, a poll worker.